Google is shuttering Google Compare: WSJ

People are silhouetted as they pose with laptops in front of a screen projected with a Google logo, in this picture illustration taken in Zenica October 29, 2014.

Reuters/Dado Ruvic

Google is shuttering Google Compare, its U.S. comparison-shopping site for auto insurance, credit cards and mortgages after one year, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The quick reversal is a setback to the Alphabet unit's efforts to use its enormous reach to provide consumers with niche shopping services and financial-services tools, the Journal said. (on.wsj.com/1TwbTd9)

The company said in an email to its partners on Monday that Google Compare's U.S. and U.K. services would start winding down this month and terminate on March 23, according to the Journal.

Google said the service didn't meet its expectations and that the company will now focus on AdWords and future innovations, the paper reported citing the email.

Google could not immediately be reached for comment outside U.S. business hours.

(Reporting by Eric Beech in Washington and Vishal Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sandra Maler and Gopakumar Warrier)

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